Byrne initially struggled with writer’s block, but soon adopted a scattered stream-of-consciousness lyrical style inspired by early rap and academic literature on Africa. The artwork for Remain in Light was conceived by bassist Tina Weymouth and drummer Chris Frantz, and was crafted with the help of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology‘s computers and design company M&Co. Talking Heads expanded to nine members for a promotional tour, and following its completion the band went on hiatus for several years, leaving the individual members to pursue a variety of side-projects. The album was the last of the band’s collaborations with Eno.

Remain in Light was widely acclaimed by critics, who praised its sonic experimentation, rhythmic innovations, and cohesive merging of disparate genres. The album peaked at number 19 on the Billboard 200 in the US and at number 21 on the UK Albums Chart. Two singles were released from Remain in Light: “Once in a Lifetime” and “Houses in Motion“. The record was certified Gold in the US and in Canada during the 1980s. It has been featured in several publications’ lists of the best albums of the 1980s and the best albums of all time.

Side one
1. Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On) (5:46)
2. Crosseyed And Painless (4:45)
3. The Great Curve (6:26)

Side two
1. Once In A Lifetime (4:19)
2. Houses In Motion (4:30)
3. Seen And Not Seen (3:20)
4. Listening Wind (4:42)
5. The Overload (6:00)

Stop Making Sense is a live 1984 album by Talking Heads, the soundtrack to the film of the same name. The original release of the album features only nine of the songs from the movie, many of them heavily edited. The album spent more than two years (118 weeks) on the Billboard 200 chart.

While there’s no debating the importance of Jonathan Demme‘s classic film record of Talking Heads‘ 1983 tour, the soundtrack released in support of it is a thornier matter. Since its release, purists have found Stop Making Sense slickly mixed and, worse yet, incomprehensive. The nine tracks included jumble and truncate the natural progression of frontman David Byrne‘s meticulously arranged stage show. Cries for a double-album treatment — à la 1982’s live opus The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads — were sounded almost immediately; more enterprising fans merely dubbed the VHS release of the film onto cassette tape. So, until a 1999 “special edition” cured the 1984 release’s ills, fans had to make do with the Stop Making Sense they were given — which is, by any account, an exemplary snapshot of a band at the height of its powers. Even with some of his more memorable tics edited out, Byrne is in fine voice here: Never before had he sounded warmer or more approachable, as evidenced by his soaring rendition of “Once in a Lifetime.” Though almost half the album focuses on Speaking in Tongues material, the band makes room for one of Byrne‘s Catherine Wheel tunes (the hard-driving, elliptical “What a Day That Was”) as well as up-tempo versions of “Pyscho Killer” and “Take Me to the River.” If anything, Stop Making Sense‘s emphasis on keyboards and rhythm is its greatest asset as well as its biggest failing: Knob-tweakers Chris Frantz and Jerry Harrison play up their parts at the expense of the treblier aspects of the performance, and fans would have to wait almost 15 years for reparations. Still, for a generation that may have missed the band’s seminal ’70s work, Stop Making Sense proves to be an excellent primer.

The group produced several commercial hits and a number of multimedia projects throughout its career, and often collaborated with other artists, such as musician Brian Eno and director Jonathan Demme.

Talking Heads found a way to open up the dense textures of the music they had developed with Brian Eno on their two previous studio albums for Speaking in Tongues, and were rewarded with their most popular album yet.
Ten backup singers and musicians accompanied the original quartet, but somehow the sound was more spacious, and the music admitted aspects of gospel, notably in the call-and-response of “Slippery People,” and John Lee Hooker-style blues, on “Swamp.” As usual, David Byrne determinedly sang and chanted impressionistic, nonlinear lyrics, sometimes by mix-and-matching clichés (“No visible means of support and you have not seen nothin’ yet,” he declared on “Burning Down the House,” the Heads‘ first Top Ten hit), and the songs’ very lack of clear meaning was itself a lyrical subject. “Still don’t make no sense,” Byrne admitted in “Making Flippy Floppy,” but by the next song, “Girlfriend Is Better,” that had become an order — “Stop making sense,” he chanted over and over. Some of his charming goofiness had returned since the overly serious Remain in Light and Fear of Music, however, and the accompanying music, filled with odd percussive and synthesizer sounds, could be unusually light and bouncy.

The album closer, “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody),” even sounded hopeful. Well, sort of. Despite their formal power, Talking Heads‘ preceding two albums seemed to have painted them into a corner, which may be why it took them three years to craft a follow-up, but on Speaking in Tongues, they found an open window and flew out of it.
In 1989 the album was ranked #54 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “100 best albums of the 1980s”. In 2012 Slant Magazine listed the album at #89 on its list of “Best Albums of the 1980s”.

David Byrne designed the cover for the general release of the album. Artist Robert Rauschenberg won a Grammy Award for his work on the limited-edition LP version. This album featured a clear vinyl disc in clear plastic packaging along with three clear plastic discs printed with similar collages in three different colors.

Side one
1. Burning Down the House (4:00)
2. Making Flippy Floppy (4:36)
3. Girlfriend Is Better (4:25)
4. Slippery People (3:30)
5. I Get Wild/Wild Gravity (4:06)

Side two
1. Swamp (5:09)
2. Moon Rocks (5:04)
3. Pull Up the Roots (5:08)
4. This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody) (4:56)